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Let users sync SharePoint files with the new OneDrive sync client

6/20/2018

4 minutes to read

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In this article

This article is for IT administrators in large organizations who want to enable users in their organizations to sync SharePoint Online team sites with the new OneDrive sync client. Smaller organizations and organizations that are new to Office 365 are already set up to sync OneDrive and SharePoint files with the new OneDrive sync client.

When you enable this feature, users will be able to sync the files in a SharePoint Online team site to their PCs and Macs using the OneDrive sync client (OneDrive.exe). As part of this, they will be able to:

Browse to a SharePoint Online site or shared folder and click Sync to sync all contents in the document library or only selected folders that are important to them.

Automatically transition from the existing OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe)

Test the feature before you enable it for your organization

Follow these steps if you want to preview the syncing of SharePoint Online files before enabling the feature for your entire organization.

Important

You only need to follow these steps to set registry keys on computers you want to use to preview the functionality. When you're ready to enable SharePoint sync for your organization, you can remove these registry keys and follow the steps under Set SharePoint to sync with the OneDrive sync client.

There are known issues when you use the registry keys to preview the feature using Internet Explorer on Windows 7, or on SharePoint sites that use the classic experience. These issues don't affect the feature when you enable it in the SharePoint admin center. Enabling TeamSiteSyncPreview.reg makes the OneDrive sync client update on the Insiders Ring. For info about the build currently released to this ring, see New OneDrive sync client release notes.

Restart the sync client:

Right-click the blue cloud icon in your system tray and click Exit.

Search for "OneDrive" in the Start menu and choose OneDrive Desktop app.

Set SharePoint to sync with the OneDrive sync client

Sign in to Office 365 as a global admin or SharePoint admin.

Select the app launcher icon in the upper-left and choose Admin to open the Microsoft 365 admin center. (If you don't see the Admin tile, you don't have Office 365 administrator permissions in your organization.)

In the left pane, choose Admin centers > SharePoint.

In the left pane, click settings.

Make sure "OneDrive Sync Button" is set to "Show the Sync button."

To sync SharePoint files with the new client, you must also sync OneDrive files with the new client.

For "Sync Client for SharePoint," select Start the new client.

Note

If you don't see the "Sync Client for SharePoint" setting on the Settings page, your organization is already set up to use the new OneDrive sync client. When users sign in to the OneDrive sync client (OneDrive.exe), it will automatically take over syncing the site libraries that the previous new OneDrive sync client sync client (Groove.exe) was syncing. For information about how this works, and about the types of libraries that will continue syncing with the previous sync client, see Transition from the previous OneDrive for Business sync client.

Click OK.

These changes take several hours to propagate. To check that they've propagated, go to a SharePoint Online site and click Sync. In the browser dialog box that confirms the request to open a program, the "Program" should appear as "Microsoft OneDrive" and the "Address" should start with "odopen://"